Brooks' lawyer Steven Parkinson reached out to BP chairman David Wilson for the PR work. The former journalist handles BP's global push for Emirates Airline and was news chief at British Airways and PR manager for P&O European Ferries.

Parkinson says the arrest of Brooks caused the former News of the World editor "enormous reputational damage" and wants the police to "give account of their actions."

Meanwhile, News Corp. today announced that Lord Grabiner is to chair its independent management and standards committee responsible for investigating hacking, police payments and any other areas that it believes are necessary.

Grabiner has more than 40 years of commercial litigation experience and chaired the board of governors of the London School of Economics from 1998-2007.